Patent document EP 1 518 099 B1 discusses a generic device for sensing a pressure, which has a pressure-sensing element disposed in a sensor housing. The sensor housing has a first housing part which is formed as a plate-shaped metal part and whose outer case is provided as external drive for a screw-in tool having a hexagonal contour. A metallic pressure connector, provided with a pressure channel and an external thread, is joined to the first housing part by laser welding, for example. As pressure-sensing element, a metallic pressure-measuring cell is used which has a blind-hole-type inner channel that ends at a thin membrane. On the side of the membrane facing away from the blind-hole-type inner channel, a pressure sensor is disposed which detects a deformation of the membrane in response to an application of pressure. The pressure-measuring cell is mounted and welded on the pressure connector through an opening in the first housing part in such a way that the blind-hole-type inner channel is connected to the pressure channel of the pressure connector. A circuit element having an evaluation circuit is contacted to the sensor element, e.g., via bonding wires, and is stuck onto the first housing part within the sensor housing. The second housing part is formed as a male connector provided with electrical connections, and is produced as an injection-molded part from plastic. A joining part in the form of a deep-drawn, thin-walled, sheet-metal part is embedded with one end section in the plastic of the second housing part, and with the end section facing away from the second housing part, is mounted on the first housing part and welded to it at a circumferential contact surface with the aid of a laser. Spring contacts connect the electrical connections of the second housing part to the circuit substrate. Such devices are used, for example, as high-pressure sensors in automotive engineering, and have proven themselves there many times.
Because in the related art, the first housing part is in the form of a plate-shaped metal part, as a third component for the mechanical connection between the first housing part and the second housing part, a deep-drawn part is needed, which must be injected into the plastic of the second housing part. This is necessary in order to be able to produce the mechanical connection between the joining part and the metallic housing part by welding. If the joining part were omitted, the second housing part made of plastic would have to be joined to the metallic first housing part, necessitating costly joining structures on the first housing part. However, this is only possible in a very troublesome manner, since the first housing part is in the form of a plain plate-shaped metal part, on which joining structures can be formed only to a very limited extent. On the other hand, the formation of the first housing part as a plain plate-shaped metal part has the great advantage that the outer case of the first housing part represents a stable external drive for a screw-in tool in order to be able to screw the pressure connector, provided with a screw thread, into a pressure-measuring opening, assigned to the device, of a motor vehicle, for example.